Churchill Defiant audiobook

Book review by Stephen FraterChurchill DefiantFighting On: 1945 – 1955 By Barbara LeamingHarper N.Y., NY 2010An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Release date: October 12, 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-133758-1 Only a handful of people have had more biographies written about them than Sir Winston Churchill. A recent tally put the total near 500. “Can there be anything new to say?” rhetorically asked a Churchill historian in 2004. Barbara Leaming’s just-released Churchill Defiant: Fighting On: 1945 – 1955, answers that question with a resounding and fascinating “Yes!” Leaming, a bestselling New York Times author whose most recent book is a biography of John F. Kennedy, has written an insightful and highly-entertaining portrait of Churchill’s last “decade in the wilderness,” warts and all. In July of 1945, Churchill was 70 years old and had been in Parliament almost continually since the turn of the century. He had served in a long series of senior ministerial offices culminating as both Defense Minister and Prime Minister for the past five years during the Second World War. He was at the zenith of a long, tumultuous and uniquely historic career. Nazi Germany was defeated and the Japanese Empire’s days of aggression were clearly numbered. He was hailed as the savior of his people and thousands upon thousands had recently cheered him at Whitehall while celebrating Germany’s unconditional surrender in May. He was already an undisputed literary, political and military titan of the Twentieth Century; one of the original “Big-Three;” and the man who almost-alone inspired his nation and convinced the world that England was capable of facing down Adolf Hitler’s Nazi war machine. Mere mortals would likely have accepted that a half-century of political and military service to The United Kingdom was coming to a glorious end. Churchill, as ever, had other plans. Confident that victory huzzahs would be transformed into votes, Churchill called for a general election on July 5, 1945. It was the first in a decade, since the 1940 elections were cancelled due to the outbreak of the war. Almost all domestic and foreign commentators predicted Churchill’s Conservative Party, the Tories, would be returned to power. Even Clement Atlee, leader of the opposition Labour Party and Deputy Prime Minister in Churchill’s coalition War Cabinet, saw only defeat in the tea-leafs. After the July 5th vote, (the results would not be tallied for three weeks to allow far-flung military ballots to be counted) Churchill went to Potsdam for the Big Three Summit, where (the new man,) Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Churchill were to lay the ground work for post-war Europe. During the last week of July, Churchill flew home from Germany, for what he expected was going to be a 48 hour victory lap. What he found at home was not only defeat, but an electoral disaster. The Tories had suffered one of their worst humiliations in 120 years. The scope of the landslide stunned Churchill who bitterly rejected an offer from the King of the Order of the Garter, one of Britain’s highest honors, saying he had instead received the order of the “boot,” from the people. Leaming’s masterfully written and intimate book is a rich insider’s tale of back-stairs palace intrigue. Her superb sources provide wonderful insight into the personalities of the players and Leaming brings them alive in this period as few other authors have done. There is the long-suffering, loyal, cautious, yet ambitious Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who expects Churchill to hand over the party leadership after the 1945 defeat, yet has to tread delicately with Churchill, who still is fondly regarded as victory’s architect by the masses and who also is writing his monumental history of the war. The Conservative party’s power-behind-the-scenes with both money and influence, was Robert Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, leader of the opposition peers and heir to the 4th Marquess of Salisbury. The Cecil family had advised British monarchs for centuries and Cecil’s grandfather, Prime Minister Lord Salisbury had been largely “responsible (at least as Winston saw it) for the political ruin of Winston’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill.” The descriptions of the machinations of the players, all ostensibly “friends and colleagues,” and Churchill’s own infuriatingly clever counter-strategies make for a colorful, detailed, highly readable and often-amusing history. Leaming captures Churchill at both his best and his worst, as he stubbornly clings to power in the hope that he can reclaim Downing Street and the premiership, against conventional wisdom, odds and father-time himself. Churchill’s conviction and convenient rationale for hanging onto power; that only he can resolve the thorny Cold War impasse that gripped the world in the immediate post-war era, is beautifully rendered by Leaming. While the book adds an oft-overlooked chapter to the great man’s great life, in Leaming’s hands it’s also a touching human race against time and gathering gloom overshadowing a towering intellect, ego and political career in terminal decline. The amazing fact that Churchill managed to return to power and remain there into his eighties, to the frustration of all including his wife, is truly a testament to the man’s ability to “fight on.” Copyright, 2010 Herald Tribune Media Group

Good overview of Churchill's second stint as PM. Three thoughts from the book:1) He knew what he wanted and the role he needed to play. 2) He was indomitably optimistic, maybe even to the point of dangerous or damaging self-deception.  (But remember, this was a man who willed UK through WWII and withstood Hitler, he needed an unhealthy dose of optimism. He was able to take any slight encouragement of his ideas and use it as a boost to his ends. 3) He had an incredible sense of momentum. Even the slightest opening or favorable turn of events would send him into a whir of action to seize the moment and maximize forward momentum. He didn't make the mistake of basking in a positive outcome but channeled that energy into pushing toward the next step. To some extent, Church was probably too focused on his goal and his optimism too often strayed into delusion. While reading this book, it struck me that even our strengths, when totally unchecked, can become our blind spots. If you have good people around you, listen to those people.  

This book condenses a large quantity of historical material into a readable, flowing narrative.Churchill's defiant, dogged personality is a continuing theme. He is not above launching palace intrigues to set his would-be usurpers against each other. While out of power (1945-1951) he resists attempts from within the Conservative party to give up the leadership. This continues as Prime Minister, until he resigns in 1955.During his second term as Prime Minister (1951-1955), Learning focuses on his attempts to establish UK/US/USSR, aimed at creating a lasting East-West peace. This exposes the dark side of his determined personality. He believed that, had the talks gone forward, he alone would be able to solve the problem.This was likely to the detriment of the UK's domestic affairs, since the postwar economy was in tatters. That is my conclusion; however, as the book says little about domestic events during the 1951-1955 period.